Japan Industry

Japan: Industrial production drops in November

December 28, 2015

In November, industrial production contracted 1.0% over the previous month in seasonally-adjusted terms, which contrasted the 1.4% increase recorded in October. November’s print was larger than the 0.4% decrease that market analysts had expected and represented the first drop in three months.

According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the categories that made the greatest contributions to the monthly drop were general-purpose, production and business oriented machinery, chemicals and fabricated metals. Despite November’s decline, the government maintained its basic assessment of industrial production, stating that output was "moving back and forth."

On an annual basis, industrial output rose 1.6% in November, which contrasted the 1.4% drop tallied in the previous month. Annual average growth in industrial production inched up from minus 1.2% in October to minus 0.7% in November.

The Survey of Production Forecast showed that manufacturers are becoming more optimistic. They now expect industrial output to have recorded a month-on-month 0.9% expansion in December, which contrasted the 0.9% decrease that was forecast in the previous month’s survey. Manufacturers expect a whopping 6.0% expansion in January.

Met the why particular Consensus Forecast panelists see industrial production expanding 1.4% in 2016, which is down 0.3 percentage points over the previous month’s projection. For 2017, the panel expects industrial production to rise 1.7%.

In December, the core consumer price index stayed flat compared to the previous month in seasonally-adjusted terms, contrasting a 0.1% rise in November.
Core inflation remained steady at November’s 0.9% in December, which represented the joint-highest reading since March 2015.